Tag Archives: sketching

The Musée de Cluny houses a collection of medieval arts and crafts. The Hôtel de Cluny it self is an interesting building as it is an example of French domestic medieval architecture. You enter the museum through a cobblestone courtyard which immediately triggered my imagination.

It has a particularly interesting collection of sculptures some of which relate to Notre-Dame. One series holds interesting history as originally they had decorated the cathedral but were vandalised by revolutionaries in 1793. After being cast aside they were purchased by a builder and he re-cycled them using them to shore up the foundations of a private mansion he was building. They were rediscovered in 1977 enabling historians to understand a lot more about sculpture of the period.

These had such an interesting history I decided to draw one of them. The piece I chose is a sort of triangular formation which proved quite a challenge! Click on the image above and you can see a larger version. This also fills EDM drawing challenge 38 “Draw at a Museum”

This is what the page spread looked like when I wrote in it later that evening.

I included our 2 entry tickets which illustrate items in the museum and map given to visitors.

The Musée de Cluny owns a famous series of tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They are highly acclaimed and many people visit just to see these. They are however undergoing cleaning and restoration before travelling to Japan to be exhibited there. I was aware of this as the information is on their website, so was not disappointed.

There is a lot to see for a ‘small’ museum such as 12th- and 13th-century crosses, some fantastic illuminated manuscripts, and loads of carvings.

A highlight for me was the fan-vaulted medieval chapel and downstairs are the ruins of Roman baths. It was a great afternoon and since it is a ‘small’ museum there were no lines and no crowds.

We have arrived in Paris to a lovely compact apartment and haughty giraffe. By chance my first drawing in this city fits the EDM drawing challenge # 288 as the prompt reads “Draw something with spots”.

I think it’s a female giraffe because she has big eyes and a suitable haughty expression. Our apartment in Paris is lovely and is decorated in black white and lime green and has this strange giraffe that is I am sure a very fashionable interior decorator item.

Why am I drawing a spotty giraffe? Well I am dealing with body time clock that is telling me 3 in the morning is 3 in the afternoon. At 3 in the afternoon I am giddy with tiredness. Since I cant exactly bound out and see the sites in the middle of the night I decided to draw my friend here. So this was sketched as I was wide awake while the city slept.

As I worked my new inktense pencils over the page, outside I could hear people in twos and threes make their way home from clubs and bars. One stumbled over a couple of empty wine bottles, sending them clattering down the uneven pavement into street, making such a racket on the uneven surface that it drowned out the curses made by the late night pedestrian who had caused the noise.

Life has been a bit busy lately as we are planing a take a trip. I will share details with folks soon. I am not being mysterious or anything I just wanted to post this latest drawing. For the last 3 days I have been trying to find time to post it here. So her it is!

Drawing challenge numbers 94, 195 and 218. It is 3 of the challenge prompts in one sketch. All are part of a scandinavian designed cutlery set we purchased when we were first married over 30 years ago. It was expensive at the time and we treated ourselves. is still fashionable and we still use it every day.

Diana Boyer kept sketchbooks recording everyday life around the farm on Bobbara Creek, in the Binalong district of southern New South Wales. The National Museum of Australia now houses some of them.

Apparently she carried pencils, ink, brushes and watercolours everywhere so she could record what she saw on the spot. Trained as a botanist in Argentina Diana Boyer’s observed the property’s changing landscape, native plants and local animals, so that her sketchbooks reveal the how climate change impacted on the environment.

In 2006 Diana Boyer created Time Change, an animation using a series of small watercolour painting some of which are on display.

In 2007 the Boyers left Bobbara Creek and now live in the UK. The sketchbooks and artworks were donated to the National Museum of Australia by Diana Boyer in 2008